1

FAMILY AGRICULTURE AND DIVERSIFIED CROPS - A POSITIVE RESPONSE TO THE DROUGHT IN THE SOUTH REGION OF BRAZIL Vitor Popinsky

Abstract: The present paper aims to understand the response of the Pradense society to the drought that emerged in 2005 and consequently broke out into a state of emergency in this municipality of the Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil. With a qualitative approach, using field work, it attempts to describe the perception of the social actors in a holistic perspective, regarding the impacts and consequences of this occurrence. Keywords: Family Agriculture, Diversified Crops, Climate changes

ACRONYMS ACIS-AP – Associação Comercial Industrial e Serviços de António Prado

AECIA – Associação dos Agricultores Ecologistas de Ipê e de António Prado

Coopaecia – Cooperativa AECIA de agricultores ecologistas

CORSAN – Companhia Riograndense de Saneamento

EMATER – Associação Riograndense de Empreendimentos de Assistência

Técnica e Extensão Rural

FEE – Fundação de Economia e Estatística

IPHAN – Instituto do Património Histórico e Artístico Nacional

PRONAF – Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar

Why Antônio Prado?

During the field work, this was one of the most pertinent issues which needed to

be settled with the local people. Normally, after I explained the reason for my stay there,

I was asked:” why Antônio Prado?”

I think it’s important to explain the way that Antônio Prado was selected as the

place that the research was undertaken. Not only because of the continuous queries, but

it’s important to see that research is limited by various factors, in this case, by time and

money.

2

Before Antônio Prado, it was established that my research was going to be done

in the municipality of Caxias do Sul. From research on the internet, I felt some

hesitation with respect to the selected location.

The township of Caxias do Sul has about 400.000 habitants. It’s not impossible

to do field work on this type of population density, but we have to know the data we

want to collect, and then select the right methodology and techniques to obtain it.

During the time of the formation before the field work I became reluctant about

the municipality.

With just three weeks and a limited budget to do the field work, I started to

think that the research was going to be compromised, because of the costs of being in a

big place, the necessity of transportation, time to become familiar with the place, in

summary, factors that increase the costs and time available for research like this, which

just takes 15 days of field work.

The coordination didn’t place any hindrance to the idea of changing the location,

thus, the next step was looking on the internet at a small place near Caxias do Sul, but

we changed this strategy and decided to call the Department of Environment and

Agriculture in Caxias do Sul, and ask for a town with a small density population in the

region that suffered from the drought of 2005 and that had declared a state of

emergency. They gave us three locations: Ipê; Vacaria and Antônio Prado. We started

to consider Ipê, it fulfilled the three requirements, but then we searched for a place to

stay and we didn’t find anything. The next place was Vacaria but it didn’t fulfil the

requirements; despite being less dense than Caxias do Sul, it has a considerable

population. The last was Antônio Prado which was chosen, and as the next pages will

show, this micro-region presents particularities that give a different response to the

drought that occurred in 2005 in the region and in the country.

3

Historical consequences of floods and droughts in

Antônio Prado

The mountainous area now known as Antônio Prado

in the Gaucha Mountain - Rio Grande do Sul - remained

impenetrable until the decade of 1880, just the Kaingang, a

hunter-gathered ethnic group live there. Then the region

was occupied by Swedish and Polish settlers until 1888, a

time when they start a new immigration to Alto Uruguai (cf.

Barbosa, 1980:14).

Nevertheless it was the Italian immigrants that

occupied the recent pages of the history of that land, and

they are the reason why it’s known as the most Italian city

of Brazil. Mainly they come from the region of Veneto in

the north of Italy and by the immigrants that first tried

living in the coffee plantations in São Paulo or from the

neighbouring municipality of Caxias do Sul, that’s why the

name of the municipality was from a man that fought for

immigration in the country (cf. Barbosa, 1980: 14).

Like the lyrics Mérica, Mérica demonstrate the epic

journey to reach the Promised Land, Barbosa (1980) shows

the same brave odyssey of the first Italian settlers in the

dense forest where Antônio Prado now lays. This part of the

history was constantly referred to in the field work by the

descendents of these first settlers, for example, like one of

the informants one told me, Italians are hard workers: in a

adverse place like this region, they made agriculture prosper, if they were in the

northeast of Brazil, one of the poorest regions in the country, they probably would have

made the same agriculture prosper.

Geographically Antônio Prado is situated in the region of Rio Grande do Sul

with 347,62 km². Watered by the Andas and Prata rivers. The municipality has borders

with Ipê in the north, Nova Roma do Sul, Nova Pádua e Flores da Cunha in the south,

São Marcos and Campestre da Serra in the east and Veranópolis, Vila Flores and

Mérica, Merica´

Dalla Italia noi siamo partiti Siamo partiti col nostro onore Trentasei giorni di macchina e vapore, e nella Merica noi siamo arriva'. Merica, Merica, Merica, cossa saràlo 'sta Merica? Merica, Merica, Merica, un bel mazzolino di fior. E alla Merica noi siamo arrivati no' abbiam trovato nè paglia e nè fieno Abbiam dormito sul nudo terreno come le bestie andiam riposar. Merica, Merica, Merica, cossa saràlo 'sta Merica? Merica, Merica, Merica, un bel mazzolino di fior. E la Merica l'è lunga e l'è larga, l'è circondata dai monti e dai piani, e con la industria dei nostri italiani abbiam formato paesi e città. Merica, Merica, Merica, cossa saràlo 'sta Merica? Merica, Merica, Merica, un bel mazzolino di fior. Merica, Merica, Merica, cossa saràlo 'sta Merica? Merica, Merica, Merica, un bel mazzolino di fior.

4

Protásio Alves on the West. The climate is considered subtropical and the latitude

reaches 770 meters above the sea level.

Typically this region doesn’t have many problems with droughts, and therefore

the occurrence in 2005 caused some apprehension. Nevertheless the testimony of one

elder informant states that the impact of the drought of 2005 doesn’t even compare with

one in the past: “Fifty years ago there was a drought, by the Inferno River on the top…

I wanted to say, down there where I live, had almost dried out. One river that it’s a

river, one medium river. I tell you because I went to the river, and there was a puddle

5

here and there. I was peeking the fishes that stay in the puddles...”1 Rosana, the

agricultural engineer of the Cooperativa Agropecuária Pradense, confirmed this fact,

that is, the elders say that a intense drought like this one happened 60 years ago, and the

young ones never had seen one like this before, and so they were not prepared for it.

Barbosa (1980) described one episode of a big drought in December of 1889 that

made the settlers lose their crops and therefore go to work on the construction of the

Simão Road, but the main climate problem of the region were the floods of the rivers

that surround the municipality and made communication impossible with other regions

(cf. Barbosa, 1980: 18, 36, 37).

The repercussions of the isolation of Antônio Prado persist in the memory of the

inhabitants. To resolve the problem of the floods that made the municipality

inaccessible, they decided to order an iron bridge from Germany to be constructed in the

Passo do Zeferino, but this never happened. The bridge arrived in the Rio Grande do

Sul, but instead of going to Antônio Prado it went to the neighbouring municipality of

Vacaria, because they were afraid of the development occurring in Antônio Prado (cf.

Barbosa, 1980: 36, 37)

Not just isolation caused the decrease of the inhabitants or the exodus of the

inhabitants to Alto Uruguai, but there were also other effects:

“The relative road via isolation of Antônio Prado was one of

the factors that permitted the preservation of the cultural-historic

patrimony. The tourists and the experts that passed by the city, or

visited the inland were delighted with the beauty of the old chalets,

most of them in wood, in a typical style of Italian constructions of the

beginning of the century. In 1988, after countless attempts the

ISPHAN/Pró Memória declared Antônio Prado “National

Patrimony” ”2.

(Boni, 1989: 9)

In 1987 there was one provisory tombamento3 of 47 buildings in the city center.

This event provoked controversy in the Pradense society:

1 Interview made on 18/07/06. Translated by the author 2 Translated by the author 3 “The Tombamento is an administrative act of the public power, with the objective of protecting determined cultural goods, impediment that they come to be destructed or to take away their character. It must be applied to movable or immovable goods of natural and cultural interest, in what they are

6

“Even in these first reactions to the tombamento it can be

predicted the main poles of the controversy that divided the

informants: the question of the propriety right, the theme of

modernization and progress in a local society, the dispute related to the

definition of memory (representatively concerning, in the value of

tombadas houses, if this represented or not the experience of the

immigrant and the Italian colonization in the region), in the end but not

the least important, the authoritative action of the SPHAN.”4

(Lewgoy: 8)

The first informant that noted this fact was Marcus, the secretary of the

Agriculture and Environment Secretary. Before I arrived in Antônio Prado the

previously collected information gave me the idea that it was a tourist city, and not only

was it a national patrimony but was also designed as a slow city5 and was included in

the route of the wine of the Gaucha Mountain, but the field work demonstrated other

points of view.

According to Marcus and corroborated by Lewgoy6 the tombamento was not

viewed as a factor of development to all Pradenses, instead they see “The construction

in stone-work passed to signify social position while the wood in a general way stayed

with the humble and unpretentious constructions, until these days”7 (Posenato, 1989: 15)

In agreement with Ciami Fochesato, the probationer that was working in the

office of the Tourism Secretary stated that statistically tourism represents a small part of

the activities of the municipality, notwithstanding the cultural and natural potential that

it has.

associated with historically, culturally, architectonics, effectives, artistic, archeologically, ethnographically, bibliographically, land-scape values. Can be photographs, books, furniture, utensils, works of art, buildings, streets, squares, quarters, cities, regions, forests, water-falls, etc. The tombamento must always be accomplishment with the public power – by the Union, through the Institute of the Historical and Artistic National Patrimony – IPHAN, by the State Government through the Institute of The Historical and Artistic Patrimony of the State – IPHAE or by the municipality administration employing specific laws. 4 Translated by the author 5 It’s a movement that congregates a international network of cities, compromise officially to improve the quality of the life of there citizens through the valorisation of the culture, environment and especially by the gastronomy. 6 Anthropologist that conducted field work in 1990 and 1991 in António Prado with the aim of interpreting the details of the different ethnographic dimensions moved by the tombamento. 7 Translated by the author

7

Another “post card” of the city it’s the Brazilian movie “O Quatrilho”8 that was

made in the idyllic landscape of Antônio Prado and in some of the tombadas houses.

The film represented the colonization of the Italian immigrants in the Gaucha

Mountain. Some informants said that this movie brought a new perspective to the

pradenses that thought that the tombamento was a negative thing in the municipality

and a new way of promoting the tourism.

Of the many factors that the Gaucha Mountain presents for attractive tourism,

the subtropical climate is one of the most important. Mainly Brazilians relocate to this

part of the country to enjoy the cold weather, even snow appears in Antônio Prado, but

that did not happen during the field work during the cold season.

Despite the fact that the city’s inhabitants don’t mention any drought; they

emphasize constantly the climate changes that were occurring locally and globally and

consequently they were concerned about the next generations, as the next chapters will

describe.

Was there really a drought in 2005 in Antônio Prado?

Finally on July 10th I arrived in Antônio Prado, after spending five days in the

capital of the region, Porto Alegre. These few days were very productive for the

research, because I found a bibliography related to Antônio Prado, and got in touch with

some institutions, like the Fundação de Economia e Estatisca (FEE) and the Programa

de Pós-Graduação em Desenvolvimento Rural (PGDR) of the Faculdade de Agronomia

e Florestal, where they gave me the contact of the Centro Ecologico de Ipê,

neighbouring municipality of Antônio Prado.

During the time on the bus to Antônio Prado a lady started to talk with me, so I

explained the reason why I was there, she look at me surprised, and said that she didn’t

know anything about a drought in 2005 in Antônio Prado; even though she was not

local, she was working there in a shoe factory since 2004. But then I became worried,

this was the first contact made but the next two persons that I spoke to: the owner of the

hostel where I stayed and the lady of the restaurant told me the same. In neither case did

they hear about any drought in 2005 in Antônio Prado but the last one, told me to go to

8 Based on the novel of José Clemente Pozenato and Directed by Fabio Barreto the movie was nominated for the Oscar of Best Foreign Language Film.

8

the Department of the Environment and Agriculture and ask for her cousin that works

there. If there was a drought I would get the answer from him.

The next day I went to the building of the Prefecture where some departments of

the State and other institutions like the EMATER that could give me information about

the drought, are located.

First I went to EMATER, a mixed capital (private and governmental) institution

whose objective is to guide and inform the farmers in techniques, crops, and everything

related to the improvement of their activity.

According to the agricultural technician, Roberto Scalco, not only did the

drought occur but he also gave me a technical report9 where it’s demonstrated that some

farmers lost more than 54% of the crops: grapes, corn, apples, milk, onions, horticulture

and peaches, and as a result the emergency state was declared.

The situation was worrying according to this informant, mainly the artesian

wells, the dams and even the water springs dried in the inland and the solution passed

through the construction of more artesian wells and the adjournment of the payment of

agriculture loans that the farmers made and because of problems provoked by the

drought, they couldn’t pay. For the families more affected a quantity of 300 to 350

Reais10 was given by the government, called “bolsa estiagem”.

Next to the EMATER was the office of the Department of Environment and

Agriculture, there I met three functionaries: two environmental technicians, and Marcus,

the secretary of the department, who described to me not only what occurred in the

drought but also cultural aspects related to the pradenses. First they baptised the

balcony to attend to the public as “balcony of lamentations”, Like Marcus said: “No one

comes here to say that had a good crop season, instead they just come and ask for

help”11. Therefore in the time of the drought they realised that the demand to construct

artesian wells increased and still is. This strategy is causing some reluctance from the

technicians and the farmers, because with the substantial demand caused by the drought,

there are more probabilities of contaminating the water table of the region.

Another technician was Rosana, the agricultural engineer from the Cooperativa

Agropecuária Pradense. She pointed out the same aspects of the others and added

another one, that is, with the drought the cooperative started to sell more irrigation

9 In annex I 10 1 U.S. dollar = 2.13 Brazil real 11 Translated by the author

9

systems. According to her, there is a change of mentality on the part of farmers,

nowadays they have more information and help from technicians, so they are concerned

with the climate changes, the drought just came to prove this, and so they decided to

prevention methods by buying irrigation systems - the most wanted is the drip irrigation

but also they are using overhead (sprinkler) irrigation.

The adjournment of the payment of agriculture loans was considered one of the

major strategies implemented by the Trade Union of Antônio Prado in collaboration

with the neighbours’ trade unions of the region, to ease the farmers that were more

affected by the drought. There turned out to be manifestations, that took place in

different parts of the region, according to the leader of the Trade Union of Antonio

Prado, the associates from the municipality participated in these manifestations and in

the end the Banks granted the adjournment.

The loans that the farmers received are integrated in the PRONAF, which

consists of a Federal Governmental finance to help the development of family

agriculture. Cesár Damiani, the manager of the Banco do Brasil (Bank of Brazil)

disposed a documentation related to adjournment entitle: “PRONAF- Emergency

measures – Droughts – South Region”12. Basically he said that the help conditions

consisted in an adjournment of loans payments related to the crop of 2004/2005 to the

next year, that is, in the time of the field work, and for the pradenses farmers that took

part of this emergency measure, wouldn’t show any problem in the payment. Another

relevant fact referred to was an increase of the farmers that made a request for loans,

before the drought existed 100 clients and now there are 700 to 800 requests.

During the field work the cross information collected confirmed the occurrence

of a drought in Antônio Prado, but the perception of the social actors diverges. Local

News paper “Cidadania” described the occurrence, even interviewed some farmers that

lost their products, as well as the diverse technicians from different institutions that I

interviewed corroborated, but the other side of the coin reveals that in the same social

group, like the farmers - the most directly or visibly affected by the drought –

demonstrated that the impact of the drought can bring positive things, such as the

quality of the grapes, or the effects of the drought was not so drastic to the activity:

“While the viniculture industries commemorate the excellent

grape harvest-time, chiefly because of the favourable weather 12 In annex II

10

conditions for the complete growing of the grapes, raising the quantity

of the sugar in the fruit, associated with the grate sanity of the fruits,

that surely will produce wines with a high quality, the farmers lament

the loses of the productivity caused by the strong drought that reached

the Rio Grande do Sul, and the difficulties of commercialising the

grapes produced”13

(Casarotto, 2005: 16)

One plausible justification for some informants not knowing about the drought

can be related to the information that the director of the CORSAN in Antônio Prado

gave, which is, although the state of emergency was promulgated, the city inhabitants

didn’t have problems with the supply of water, and so they weren’t affected directly.

For those that don’t have canalized water the situations is the opposite: “As they don’t

own a vehicle, just send a horse to bring water from a neighbour, a distance of 3 km.

Thus, they didn’t take enough, because the water became old and with mud,

inappropriate for use. For personal hygiene, they had to bathe with a mug, because the

artesian well was almost dried.”14

Despite the strongest impact of the drought having been in the inland of Antônio

Prado, it also had repercussions in the city.

As the days were passing and contact was more intense with some informants, it

was possible to discern the impact that the drought made in the city.

One of the repercussions of the drought was related to the education system. In

an interview with a teacher of the private school, it was identified that in the time of the

drought some students had to give up studying. She identified the students as sons of

settlers that had crops damaged and the solution that they took was to put the children in

the public school.

Comparatively the general perception about the education in the country placed

the private schools as best qualified in relation to the public school in the first grades,

but in the university the balance was the inverse. In the case of Antônio Prado the

differences are attenuate. Other relevant issues about the education in this municipality

are the concentration of education establishments in the city in relation to the inland: In

13 Translated by the author 14 In: newspaper “Cidadania”- A informação de António Prado, ano V – nº 63: Translated by the author

11

the entire municipality there are fifteen schools, but just four are located in the inland

(two in the community of Santana and the other two in the community of 21 de Abril).

The impacts of the drought in the rural areas cause damage in the economic

chain, affecting commercial activity in the city. As the president of ACIS –AP said:

“I would say that the people start to better understand the

problems now. After the period of the drought the people started to

stop spending the little money that they kept for future prevention. So

I would say it like this: in relation to commerce, the producers

practically stopped buying, because they don’t have any more capital,

the little that they have, they are keeping for use in another harvest […]

it directly affects commerce like this: this year the commerce it’s at a

standstill in our municipality, because, what’s perceivable is that the

farmer would have a low budget and the little money he prefers to keep

than to invest. Keep because they don’t know what is going to happen

this year. The drought extended until now, mid winter, that is, a long

time… I myself never saw a drought as big as this one.”15

With this situation, the ACIS-AP decided to give an incentive to the consumers

to buy more things in the local stores, and for that they had a raffle for owning various

prizes, being the first a car.

Another area impacted by the drought was the health system. With the

consequent decrease of water in the artesian wells and in the water springs source, it

become improper for consumption and so increased the cases of diarrhoea in the

municipality.

Though the diverse references above described about the impacts of the drought

in the city, there’s no doubt that this is a consequence of the crises of the agricultural

activity in the inland, and the effects were not just locally, but extend to all the south

region.

15 Interview on Sunday, 23-07-2006: Translated by the author

12

Family Agriculture and Diversified Crops

The colonization, in is unassuming appearance, represents one

revolution in the Brazilian economic system. The archaic structures impose by the

metropolis based in the latifundium, monoculture and the slavery: almost

continental extension of land, destinated to the production of food-stuffs that are

high quotated in the world market, worked by unfortunated that nothing get

from there labour. The settlers that were arriving from Europe introduce a

different production: the small property less than 80 hectares, destinated to the

multicultur to supply of food-stuff in the inland market and exclusively worked

by the family. In a few years it come to understand the superiority of this model,

principally in Rio Grande do Sul, where in 1829, the settlers of São Leopoldo

came down of the Sinos river and sell there product in the capital of the

province.”16

(Posenato, 1989: 6)

Three days had passed on my field work, and by this time, with the information

that I had collected, there was one major step, to go to the colony17. There’s no doubt

that the farmers were the group that was most affected by the drought and as a result the

observation of the impact, the consequences and the strategies are more evident.

Luckily I met Fernando, a person that decided to live in the colony and start to

cultivate a vine-arbour. He was from Nova Hamburgo, a nearby city; famous for

producing shoes, but recently it has been suffering from a crisis caused by international

competition. He turned out to be an important informant in the field work. Two years

ago he started to work for a family that was doing organic agriculture, before he decided

to go on his own. He was my free pass to the community of Linha 2 de Julho. Although

he was an outsider, he turned out to be an important informant, because he was there for

two years and got in touch with the settlers. This gave me the opportunity to understand

and to go deeper into aspects of the colony that would not be possible with another

methodology, for example: participating in the festivity of the colony, and by this being

16 Translated by the author 17 In these paper colony it’s refer to the inland of the municipality and it’s inhabitants are so called settlers, despite of the negative connotation as one informant said: “settlers are called as dumb, ignorant that just know about land”. But like the settlers said, they are proud of there provenience.

13

able to describe the way that the society of the colony is organized; talking with some

youths and getting to known their perspective of the colony, and of course the

perception of the settlers about the 2005 drought.

The arrival of the first settlers in Antônio Prado is associated with the

agricultural activity:

“Simão David de Oliveira was the first citizen that, by 1880,

established in the right margins of Antas River […] in that fertile land,

covered by the frost, Simão and his companion built two houses and

locked with a thorn fence in a land of 330 meters long. There they

cultivated corn, beans, tapioca, sugarcane, coffee, banana-trees, fig-

trees, pineapple plants…”18

(Barbosa, 1980:12, 13).

The agriculture in Antônio Prado can be divided in three stages:

Implementation of the colonial agriculture (1875-1930), the colonial agriculture (1931-

1970) and the modern agriculture (1971-2006).

Simão David de Oliveira belonged to the first stage that was characterized by the

slash-and-burn agriculture; small farms with subsistence production utilizing the fallow

system. The trade of the pig fat was considered the principal economic activity.

The second stage consisted in the intensive use of the land with the

intensification of slash and the reduction of the fallow system. Corn and wheat

represented the main crops that permitted an increase of mills. In the first stage the

grape was used mainly for self-consumption, but in this period the production increased

and so cooperatives appeared as well as technical assistance (EMATER) and rural

credit.

At the end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties –still in the second

stage- the prices of pig fat and wheat went down, so these productions were abandoned

until present days.

With this situation the third stage the settlers took to introducing new types of

production: milk, horticulture, fruits (peaches, apples) and aviary chickens. As a

consequence agro industries and horticulture merchants were introduced in the

18 Translated by the author

14

municipality which expanded production in the region (Caxias do Sul and Porto

Alegre). Other relevant issues at this stage were the adherence of the settlers to the

ecologic agriculture and the abandonment of the slash-and-burn agriculture areas and

the beginning of reforestation.

Despite of all these variations in activity, three main aspects persist until today,

that is, family agriculture, crop diversity and small property.

The kinship relationships have an important role in the organization of the

communities in the colonies. As was observed in the two communities of S. João and 2

de Julho, the settlers had some parental relationships with each other. The community

of S. João was made up of two generations, that is, the land of the community was

divided in three owners: the father, the son and the daughter, each one with their own

type of production.

The father could be identified with the second stage - colonial agriculture – he

presented diverse crops, most for self consumption, like beans, nuts, sweet potato, figs,

pumpkins and corn for the cattle. Instead, the production of milk and grapes was done

for economic purposes.

In relation to the son and the daughter, they represented the modern agricultural

period, that is, they had small agro industries as well promoting the ecologic agriculture,

both belong to the AECIA19 and Coopaecia. The son was into the production of juices

from organic fruits (grapes, peaches and apples) as well as the production of milk. The

daughter produced a variety of teas that were selling in the ecologic markets of Antônio

Prado, Caxias do Sul and Porto Alegre. Like the others, she also produced milk.

Despite the division of land, some activities and goods belong to all, like the cattle

activity (fifty) and the utilization of the artesian well that was constructed eight years

ago.

It was possible to observe other variations of family agriculture as well as the

sense of community in the locality of 2 de Julho. The Fernando property was rented,

and the owner, Nilson Camatti, was the cousin of the neighbour, Walter Camatti, who

was a farmer that bet on the culture of onions, beets and grapes for selling, and the

19 “Created in 1989, by a group of youths that assumed the challenge of the ecologic agriculture and the associative. The AECIA appears by the discussions stimulated by the Catholic Rural Pastoral Youth of Antônio Prado/RS and by the Centre of Ecologic Agriculture of Ipê/RS, about the problems caused by the industrial agriculture, like the intoxication of the farmers and the environmental pollution caused by the machines, seeds and chemical manures, the impoverishments of the agricultures and the rural exodus” – in: http://www.aecia.com.br/ .

15

production of corn to feed the cattle, chickens and pigs, for self consumption. The

labour is done by the family; made up of him and his father, sister and brother-in-law.

José Marcon was another farmer that I met in 2 de Julho and from all informants

that I met, he probably was one of those most affected by the drought. His main

production was milk and corn. From the statements of the other informants, corn was

the crop most affected, but to them it was not the main produce, as it was for José

Marcon. The work was done by him, his two daughters and wife.

Despite the problems told by José Marcon, when I asked him about if he had

taken a loan, he responded negatively. The same question posed to the other informants,

and corroborating Cesár Damiani, the manager of the bank, the ones that took out a loan

were not having problems in the payment. From his personal experience, Walter

Camatti gave an explanation for why the settlers are not having problems in payments

of the loans. Years ago he made a loan and he was having problems in paying, the

solution was to intensify the production. This fact permitted the understanding that the

land is not being maximized, but it’s a good strategy as it was for this settler.

One major aspect in the field work was that all the settlers that I spoke to

referred to some crop lost, but as they don’t have just one crop, they said that the

situation stabilized for a time. The problem is that all commented on the present

situation. The drought cannot be viewed as a static event that just occurred in 2005, for

the settlers say that the weather is changing, for three years it didn’t rain like before. In

the time of the field work it should have been raining, and was not, they were anxious,

Walter Camatti, was cultivating the onion, but was worried; if it didn’t rain he had to

install the irrigation system.

My first contact with Walter Camatti and José Marcon was in the colony’s

festival. It’s an event where all the community participates and it has a religious aspect

that occurs once or twice a year, entitled: “Our lady of Carmo - Maria Mother of the

Saviour Our companion and Patroness”20. The event lasted three days – from the 12th

to the 14th of July – the first two days were dedicated to Mass and had the objective of

preparing the community in a spiritual way for the festivity. The last day a mass was

given related to the agricultural activity with the theme: “Festive Mass with the blessing

of the scapulars, onion moult, pruning-shears and seeds”21. After the ceremony took

20 Translated by the author 21 Idem.

16

place there was a traditional lunch, that the cost 12 Reais, consisting of Capeletti soup22;

mashed potato with boiled chicken; tomato and lettuce salad; barbecue pork and

chicken; to drink, red and white wine as well as a lemon drink. At the end of the meal, it

was time to know who won the raffles that were sold during the lunch –first prize was a

cow, and like the others prizes, it was donated by families in the community. The last

activities were the football and bocha tournaments23.

Normally preparation for the festival starts one month before, with the collecting

of donations from the families; chickens, eggs, vegetables. The rest of things the

commission buys in the market.

The organization committee is nominated for one year, and all the families of the

community have to participate at least once in seven years. The activities of this

committee are not just restricted to the planning of the festival, but also the management

of the infra-structure of the community, which include the church, the Pavilion, the

soccer camp and the bar. Each one of these buildings was constructed with money from

the community, and with voluntary work of members of the community. It’s in these

places that the social life of the community happens, normally the men get together in

the community bar at night, to play cards, talk and drink. José Marcon recommended

this activity, and invited Fernando to be there; as he was going to stay in the community

he should be sociable and get to know and hook up with the people in these places.

Religion had and still has an important role in the social life of the pradenses,

many of the developments in the municipality were made by the priests, as in the

example of Father Galioto:

“…Was who lifted the colony. It will be mentioned for a long

time everything that he did. He modernized agriculture and educated

the farmers to have more luxury and comfort in their houses. He taught

them that they should have every sanitary service inside their houses.

A lot thought this impossible, because who can handle that smell? So

he took the farmers to the canonical house, take them to the sanitary,

opened the door and says: “put your nooses here. Do you smell any

unpleasant smell? Isn’t this almost like perfume?”24

(Barbosa, 1980: 51)

22 Consists of a boiled water with pasta with meat stuffed, accompanied with grated cheese. 23 From wikipedia: It’s a sport between two persons or two teams that consist in throwing the bochas (balls) and put them the most possible near of the bolim (small ball), previous launched. The opponent for is turn, will try to throw the balls more closed to the bolim or remove the balls of the opponent 24 Translated by the author

17

Despite all the efforts from the church, the relation with the communities is not

always harmonious. In conversation with José Marcon, this tension was noticeable.

Fernando had told me that all the money from the festivities stayed with the church who

also handled it’s management. Fernando was not far from the truth, as José Marcon

explained, there are some communities that do that. In relation to the community of 2 de

Julho that didn’t happen, instead, the money stayed with the community and the

management was done by the organizing committee. However, this year the community

was having some divergence with the church, they were obliged to give to the religious

institution 10 % of the income of the festivity, if they didn’t there would be no priest to

celebrate the Mass in the community.

As regarding the role of religion in the drought, it was possible to obtain

information that the various communities of the municipality made a religious

procession to the community of Burgo Forte, with the aim of causing rainfall in the

region.

Though the data collected in the field work demonstrate that the family

agriculture and the diversified crops attenuated the problems of the drought in Antônio

Prado, there are some aspects that can make this type of activity impracticable.

Agriculture represents one of the most essential activities of Antônio Prado, but

it is suffering from changes: “the rural population that in 1960 represented about 65%

of the total, changed to almost 26% in the year of 2000, in contrast, the urban

population changed from 36% to 76% in the same period.”25 (Basso, 2005: 22).

This decrease of the rural population is one of the present concerns that the

communities have to face. In agreement with this statistical data, the field work allowed

understanding of further aspects. It was possible to know that the colonies were staying

with a lot of young single men, it even appeared on the National Television – Globo –

because the opposite situation happens in the north of the country.

I had the opportunity to speak with some youths during the research, and this

was one of the subjects that was the focus. In an informal meeting with a group of

young settlers (eight boys and three girls) were we exchanging ideas from our countries.

Their perspective of the community was then understood. Most of them are studying in

the city, just four in the community of Santana and one was not a student. It curious that 25 Translated by the author

18

the three girls didn’t want to stay there, one even says that her father didn’t let her to

study, justifying: “I didn’t study to be a farmer, why you want to study”26.

Another point of view of the impractical nature of family agriculture and

diversified crops was given by Roberto Scalco, not only he was the agricultural

technician of EMATER, but also he was a farmer. Personally, he thinks that with this

type of production there isn’t maximization of productivity, that is, different crops need

different treatments as well the materials differ, and so the investments of the farmer are

higher.

Though these obstacles can influence the continuity of the family agriculture and

the diversified crops in Antônio Prado, there’s no doubt that the effects of the drought

were not as severe as the one of the neighbouring municipalities where latifundium and

monocultures predominate and like one young settler said when confronted with the

choice of staying in the colony: “A person that lives in the city doesn’t have a way to

sustain himself if doesn’t have a job. In the colony, if you have a cow, you have milk,

with chickens, you have meat and eggs. In short, you have to sustain your self, even

without working for others.” 27

26 Idem. 27 In: newspaper “Cidadania” : Translated by the author

19

Bibliography

BARBOSA, Fidélis (1980) “Antônio Prado e sua História” Porto Alegre, EST BASSO, Nilvo (org.) (2005) “Diagnostico e estratégias de desenvolvimento da agricultura de António Prado – RS” – not published BONI, Luís (1989) “Um pouco de Historia” in: Posenato, J. (org.) António Prado – Cidade Histórica. Porto Alegre, Posenato Arte & Cultura CSAROTTO, Everson (2005) “Safra de Contrastes” in newspaper “Cidadana” , Ano V- nº 63. António Prado LEWGOY, Bernardo () Do velho ao Antigo: Etnografia do surgimento de um património – not published

20

Annexes Annex I

21

Annex II

22

23